Ghana will run to IMF for financial help again – Former Cal Bank MD

Former Managing Director and Shareholder of Cal Bank, Frank Adu Jnr, has asserted that Ghana will soon go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another financial assistance.

In his view, the current state of the country shows that the economy has not turned the corner.

He accused politicians of being part of the economic mess that has ensnared the country, adding that, a lot of self-introspection needs to be done before the economy can be stabilized.

Speaking in an interview with TV3, Frank Adu Jnr said, “You will go again, I am being realistic because we are not being serious. We are not going to go anywhere under this particular type of democracy we are practicing. I think where we find ourselves in right now as a country, it is a very difficult place. How we are going to get out of it requires a lot of self-introspection."

"The grandstanding and the political generalization must stop, you are dealing with people’s lives. One of the problems we have is that when the politicians get into power, they forget that now they are in power to govern and they continue to do politics and that is one of the problems that give us all these economic difficulties we have. Everything is a political decision,” he added.

As part of measures to tame high inflation and stabilize the economy, government on July 1, 2022, announced its decision to run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion financial bailout programme.

Subsequently, a team from the IMF arrived in the country from July 6 to July 13, 2022, to engage Ghanaian authorities for a possible economic support programme.

A staff-level agreement between the Government of Ghana and the IMF was reached in December 2022.

On May 17, 2023, IMF's executive board approved Ghana's $3 billion loan facility.

The first tranche of $600million was received by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on Friday, May 19, 2023.

The IMF programme, according to the government is aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and safeguarding debt sustainability among many others.

SA/NOQ